Since the same symptoms can often point to a variety of causes, symptoms alone can't provide a proper indication of childhood trauma. This theory suggests that people can block unpleasant, painful, or traumatic memories if there is a motivation to do so. 2019;14(6):1072-1095. doi:10.1177/1745691619862306. A 2022 study suggests that retrieval suppression can help to control intrusive memories by weakening them and making them less vivid. Now move forward through the film, the story of your childhood. This explains why a bad ending can ruin an entire experience. They discovered that some people do forget the traumatic experiences they had in childhood, even though it was established fact that the traumatic events occurred. People do not need to remember every detail in order to heal. Finding a licensed mental health professional who provides a supportive environment is one of the best things you can do to help better understand yourself. Memories develop when a person processes an event, causing neurons to send signals to each other, creating a network of connections of various strengths. Resulting in only having good memories. Memories are generally prone to distortion over time, but researchers have found some evidence to suggest that emotional memories are more resistant to the decay processes that wear away at all memories with time, says review author Elizabeth Kensinger of Boston College. If this tendency to overreact sounds familiar, it can be a starting point for conversations with a therapist. Medical Advances. Similarly, a 2016 study indicates that disrupting a memory can reduce its strength. Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. Or at least - as I like to define nostalgia - "fondly remembering times of hell." So that even bad times are good memories in their emotional response. But when the mice were in a different brain state induced by gaboxadol, the stressful event primarily activated subcortical memory regions of the brain. With support, it can be possible to build yourself back up again, and have relationships that feel fulfilling, without experiencing the need to check out. International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Researchers can better understand neuronal mechanisms that create and store memories by investigating and studying the human mind. See if you can limit your list to no more than 10. If, as you do this, you find that you are feeling flooded with too many memories, slow it down: Take a couple of deep breaths, look over your list, and again look for that emotional punch. We link primary sources including studies, scientific references, and statistics within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles.